A teleoperated (robotic) surgical system may include a surgeon console at which a surgeon may input commands to control one or more teleoperated surgical instruments mounted at a patient side cart during a surgical procedure. The patient side cart may be moved about an operating room, such as to position the patient side cart proximate a patient for the surgical procedure. One consideration when moving the patient side cart is whether the patient side cart can collide with an object, such as an object hanging from the ceiling of an operating room. Such collisions could also occur when moving components of the cart, such as when moving setup joints of the cart to prepare the cart for a surgical procedure or moving the cart after a surgical procedure has been completed.
While patient side carts have been effective for being moved from one location to another, further improvements upon patient side carts are desirable. For example, it may be desirable to provide patient side carts with devices to facilitate recognition of obstacles that the patient side cart may collide with when the cart is moved from one location to another or when components of the cart are being positioned.